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Lowell's Mill City Ballroom to close 17 days

LOWELL -- The downtown bar, Mill City Ballroom, has again run into trouble with the city, and this time has been given its most severe punishment yet.

The bar will have to close for 17 days starting Friday, Sept. 30, with the License Commission taking a strict stance after Mill City was alleged to have served underage patrons in one case, was the site of fights in two other cases, and had a bouncer assault a patron.

All those cases have allegedly taken place since May, and they follow several other instances since last year, which replaced the also troubled Brian's Ivy Hall on Merrimack Street.

Mill City Ballroom has had its license suspended for several days at a time before, but the License Commission acted swiftly last week in making the bar close for 17 days. The action takes place after City Manager Kevin Murphy, who had called for more severe punishment, appointed two new members of the five-member commission.

In one case, on June 26, a security guard was struck from behind when he was trying to get a group of people to leave at closing time, and someone discharged pepper spray inside the bar.

"Disorder is an understatement on what happened there," said commissioner Martha Howe, one of the board's two new members. "I think if the police hadn't been there in full force, it would have been a complete disaster. It's outrageous."

In another alleged instance, on July 30, a fight broke out outside Mill City's door, and one officer had to use a stun gun to subdue a man who grabbed him.

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It took 10 officers about a half-hour to restore order, Deputy Superintendent Deborah Friedl said.

"We were surrounded, and it was getting very hairy," Sgt. Thomas Lombard told the commission.

On May 1, a patron alleged, a bartender tackled him and injured him. The guard said the man headbutted him. In each of those three alleged cases, the bar was found to have failed to maintain order and decorum, charges from the Police Department that the License Commission brought to public hearings.

On Aug. 7, Mill City was found to have served a patron who was underage.

In that case, owner Joel Asadoorian said the girl and others she was with must have sneaked through a back door. But they testified under oath to the commission that they showed identification to an employee who let them through.

"There is some serious question as to both the safety and the security of this establishment," said Elliott Veloso, an attorney for the city.

Asadoorian, who began running Mill City less than two years ago, sounded exasperated, saying he's looking into selling the bar.

"Someone can do a much better job than me," he said, "and I don't want to penalize all the hardworking people that are there."

Asadoorian, who was involved in bars in Manchester, New Hampshire, before taking over at Mill City, first pledged to the License Commission that he would run a different establishment than Brian's Ivy Hall, which, with the adjacent Finn's Pub, became notorious for late-night problems. He has been before the License Commission with some regularity.

He said the bar has compiled a "banned" list of troublemaking patrons that now totals nearly 150 people. But issues have not stayed away.

In 2015, Mill City was found by the commission to have violated state liquor laws by selling tickets to a concert with complimentary champagne, hosted an under-21 event without approval, and over-served a woman who became so drunk that she passed out. Earlier this year, it was found to have illegally used a concert promoter and allowed a performance to start too close to closing time.

Another Merrimack Street bar, Dudley's, avoided discipline last week.

A 19-year-old woman, who police found very drunk nearby, said she went to Dudley's but didn't have a drink there. The License Commission placed the matter on file, taking no disciplinary action.

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